As a youth, John J. York grew up in a blue collar, Catholic section of Chicago as the fifth of six children. He loved playing football but being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at age 15 changed his life. "I lost 60 pounds in six months," he told soapoperadigest.com. "I was headed into football. I was 210 pounds when I was a junior in high school. I was planning to head to a Big 10 school but the colitis forced me to rethink everything. I went to a small state school in Wisconsin and that was when I first thought, 'What do I want to do with my life?' " In 1983, York decided to move to California to give acting a shot. He met his future wife, Vicki, the following year when she was casting the film Chattanooga Choo-Choo. The pair wed two years later. York waited tables to make ends meet and eventually landed the lead role on the TV series WEREWOLF with Chuck Connors (THE RIFLEMAN). Though short-lived, York worked steadily until landing GH in 1991 as the sexy Aussie younger brother of Tristan Rogers's Robert. The rest, as they say, is history.